Summer of '76
by Philip Glenister tomboy
Summary: Gene Hunt and his little brother Stu have the best time of their childhood in the hot Summer of 1976 in Salford, Manchester. A/U exploring their better memories of growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Word prompts "1976", "summer " and "childhood"
1. Chapter 1

**It's the summer of 1976, a nearly 13 year old Gene Hunt and his little brother Stu get up to all sorts during their six weeks off school, but he bumps into Jackie Queen who sometimes play prank phone calls in the telephone box? Will this be declared the best summer of their childhood?**

* * *

"Hold on Stu, while I get me Chopper bike from the garage. I'll come with you as I fancy a 10 pence mix up with plenty of black jacks." said a 13 year old Gene Hunt; who was the coolest kid in the street with his fizzy lemon Raleigh Chopper MkII and his little brother Stu often tagged along with him whenever they played out with their mates on the street. Gene may pop to Jackie Queen's house later to see if she wants to come out. "Sometime we mess about in the phone box making prank calls, Stu, me little bro; she'll teach you, but don't use it to scam people please OK?" said Gene advisingly promising Stu who had brown curly hair a packet of Space Invaders and some bubblegum bottles if he's been good for his big brother.

Stu played a few prank calls with his big brother's frenemy Jackie Queen and listening to Dancing Queen playing everywhere.

"I can't choose between Spangles and Opal Fruits. Will someone go halfers with me?" shouted Stu who couldn't decide on his sweets as he was given 5p to spend at the corner shop by Mum or whether to have a mix up "The grumpy shop owner might shout at you as she doesn't like children very much! Hurry up Stu or I'll choose for you!" said Gene Hunt urging Stu to choose his sweets wisely. "Okay, Genie." he sighed dramatically "That'll get me some fruit salad chews, some cherry lips and a drumstick lolly in a white paper bag instead." in Mrs Clarke's corner shop queqing up for their sweets stood behind an old lady buying sliced ham which is cut by one of those machines that goes forwards and back, meat slicer? thought Stu Hunt "or maybe I'll have lots of fizzy cola bottles and pink shrimps instead, bro?"

"Whatever you want, Stu. It's 1976, the best summer ever of our childhood!" remarked Gene Hunt with a cheeky wink in his blue eyes, as the Hunt brothers are living in Lancashire, the land that draught would forget, a month later in September. Stu proudly shows off his big brother Gene on his Raleigh Chopper to some of his little friends who decided to stick with the younger boy "My big teenage bro's yellow Chopper is the envy of the neighbourhood, but the seat too high for me, so I'll never master it..."

"Hey Stuie, what are you crying for mate?" asked Gene worriedly out of big brotherly concern seeing that his little brother is feeling a pinch of envy or had he'd been led astray again? One of the neighbours runs a bread van that goes around their council estate. "Did you ask if they could play what time is it Mr Fox and they just ditched you for following the rules and called you a baby?"

"We were playing Bumper car, bumper car Number 48..." Stu sobbed in a heap of tears "but then their cousins came over to play boring old skipping games... and I went to a different corner shop on my own to get a lemonade lolly and someone's big bro knocked their teeth out on those ramps!" he watched a 8 year old boy who has just knocked his front teeth out trying to copy Evel Knievel ramp jumps on his red Chopper.

"Starsky & Hutch is on tonight, so cheer up, little bro." said Gene rubbing his chin on Stu's dark curly hair and cuddled his little brother, picking him up when Gene sees that he's calmed down, he puts Stu back on the ground.

"Yay!" cheered Stu doing a happy little skip near his big brother Gene, as the teen is getting back on his bicycle. Stu was too young for watching The Sweeney on telly.

"You're only 4 so you know you're not allowed to the shop on your own just yet, Stu." Gene sighed "Mam will kill me, she's warned me about you running off!" he's humming the latest David Bowie song, wearing Wrangler flared jeans and his current favourite t-shirt which says ' lip smackin', thirst quenchin', ace tastin', motivatin', good buzzin', cool walkin', high talkin', fast livin', cool fizzin', ever givin' PEPSI!' on it. Punk is just around the corner.

"Will dad is going to take us to the swimming pool in his bronze ford cortina with the double lights." asked Stu buzzing with excitement, jumping up and down with the wonders of his 4 year old mind.

"Maybe if you're a good boy and he's not in the police station." Gene smiled "Did you make sure you use the Green Cross Code when crossing the road?" remembered that Stu's school had a visit from a police man dressed as Tufty the squirrel on road safety. Mum made Stu watch the Public Information Films as it was important.

Gene and Stu's mum will be making a bacon and egg pie to be eaten with home grown salad and Heinz salad cream for tea. No fancy quiches in Salford, Manchester.

* * *

**This BBC Life on Mars fanfic was written with the word prompts of "summer", "1976" and "childhood" featuring a 13 year old Gene Hunt and his little brother Stu exploring their relationship from a child's perspective and explains some of the better memories of their 1970's and 1980's upbringing. **


	2. Chapter 2

Gene would help Stu with building dens...playing cowboys & Indians...or soldiers... cops and robbers playing outside all day. A week at the seaside in the South of England, Brighton, Skegness or Minehead...and a week at relatives near Southport..no foreign holidays; their family was working class Manchester, Salford. Along the streets of Salford there were still bombsites left over from World War 2. There were lots of huge advertising hoardings and corrugated iron used instead of wooden fencing; but made great adventure playgrounds for Gene and Stu whenever their mates were roaming around in a pack of kids with homemade go-carts, the Raleigh Chopper and Grifter bikes. Mrs. Hunt worked in a nursery for a few years and it was a horrible place; really smelly and lots of kids crying.

In the Hunts home in Manchester, Salford are some Fathers Day cards on the mantelpiece: "No. 1 Dad" and "To daddy".

The Hunt brothers were on their way to Butlins, Skegness in their dad's Ford Cortina GXL with crisps and pop. And a stringy Curlywurly each. In the back passenger seat was Stu near a few Famous Five books with his older brother, but would be allowed treats such as chips or ice-cream and there were Wimpy Bars.

The Cortina GXL drives down the road to Butlins Skegness.

Another door opening, the doors to a swimming pool. "Oi, get back here, Stu!" warned a nearly 13 year old Gene Hunt similarly attired in fashionably orange swimming trunks wearing a gold medellian necklace, as the younger Hunt brother is washing his hands in a urinal wearing armbands; Stu decided this was the perfect time to be naughty for his big brother and dad.

"Stu, a urinal is not for washing hands in." said Gene pointing Stu to a toilet, just in case and keeping watch "Sure you're in? Now do your business." he instructed to his little brother perched inside a cubicle.

"A pot does tickle open a few doors, eh? Come on, Stuart Hunt!" replied Stephen Hunt carrying his younger son to the Butlins of Skegness swimming pool "If you're a good boy for your old man, 50p gets you a Matchbox car." he smiles crookedly at the Gene Genie's younger brother as children and adults are swimming about in the pool with inflatables, balls and generally having fun. "Come here, Stu!" Stephen pointed to the ground next to him; but he doesn't listen.

Gene would later become a dedicated family man when he takes over Greater Manchester Police CID from 1997 as a Detective Chief Inspector at the age of 34 years old. He would probably have been a fanfic writer in an alternate universe as a not quite finished _The Sweeney _fan-fiction, he did on the eve of the school summer holidays was eight pages long and then ended up with writers block on which direction to end it on.

"No, Stu, you're not jumping in the deep end." said Stephen Hunt restraining his four year old boy but the child insists by kicking, smacking his older brother and throws a tantrum in their father's arms. "Stop taking your anger out on Genie, I've said no!" scolded Stephen Hunt taking a screaming Stu Hunt into the swimming pool. "Fine. You got principles and if you don't stop it, Stu; you'll have a smacked bottom."

Stu listens to their father's warning. "Now, be a good boy okay?" Gene was swimming ahead and having fun with other kids of his own age.

"It's all right, I've got you." Stephen Hunt whispered softly to Gene's younger brother going through a clingy phase with his big brother and parents. "You're my baby boy and too little to be going in the deep end." He looked like an adult version of Gene Hunt, but the 1970s equivelent as he interacts with the younger dark curly haired boy inside the pool.

Later on, Gene glanced at his still sleeping father before he and Denise get their night out to the entertainments hall for bingo.

Stephen is awake immediately after Stu impersonates a chicken annoying his and Gene's father.

"I try and teach Stu and he just doesn't learn, does he?" snapped Stephen Hunt clearing his throat loudly. "Oooh! You're now being an annoying little sod."

"Oh, don't be harsh on him, Stephen!" childed Denise Hunt making a quick dinner of Findus crispy pancakes and spaghetti hoops for her two boys "Oh yeah, your PC Mallows does cartoons of people at the Christmas party!" setting out tea and cakes for afters on the Formica dining table, Gene and Stu are still seated at the table.

"What are you doing now?" asked Stephen Hunt as Gene and Stu are playing some sort of board game called Frustration. "You're a right cheat, you are Stu. Just like your mother. That is lovely!" remarked the adult spitting image of Gene Hunt pinching a cake before the brothers dinner.

Years later when asked about his memories of that hot Summer of 1976, DCI Gene Hunt replies:_ For me, though, the 1970s and 1980s was very much my childhood, so it was far enough away to be nostalgic about but also close enough to remember._


	3. Chapter 3

The drive down to Swansea, Wales took place in Stephen Hunt's other car - a sebring red and black Ford Escort Mexico MK1 with a caravan towed on the back, another Ford close to the Gene Genie's heart; it explains why Gene would drive his future Ford cars like he'd nicked them and ended up doing handbrake turns on an industrial estate after a suspect in a red Ford Mondeo Titanium X, for him policing is: it's all about being a boy racer on the right side of the law and doing awesome doughnut spins. Gene as a grown up police officer became loud and lairy when it came to arresting the suspects and bossing people around on the personal computers. But it's back to the reality of 1976 Wales, with a bump.

"and unless you want a thick ear— stop arguing over I-Spy!" yelled Stephen Hunt beeping the horn impatiently at slow drivers in front of his Escort Mexico, Now just, take it in turns, boys otherwise I'll get that tenner off you later, pocket money docked for this week."

At last they reach the caravan park in Llangennith, ready to meet the relatives and then go down to the seafront.

The younger boy, Stu is trying to get out of the caravan. Stephen Hunt pushes Gene's younger brother back inside.

"Say sorry, Stu." instructed Denise Hunt after the four year old boy was intercepted kicking and destroying his cousin Alison's sandcastle.

Stu fights it but gives in_._

_"_Good." said Stephen Hunt as the Hunt family have a week's holiday in Wales with relatives, Stephen's wife has Welsh ancestors on her side of the family all hailing from around Swansea's Gower area. "Now play nicely with cousin Alison." Stu nodded. "Good boy."

The Hunt brothers mother was born there and lived there until the age of three when her parents moved to London, but she's always remained fiercely Welsh.

In fact, Stu's most abiding memory growing up was his family all sitting around the telly on rugby international days and Mummy screaming her head off as she cheered on the likes of JPR Williams and Phil Bennett.

Stephen Hunt and his wife would invariably take him and his brother Gene (later known as DCI Gene Hunt) there for their childhood holidays. It's funny, Gene and Stu's Mum may have left Wales when she was little but she was evacuated back there during the Second World War - despite Swansea being bombed the hell out by the Germans. It was a favourite destination whenever the Hunt clan took the caravan to Llangennith to see their relatives.

During a BBC News interview years from now in 1976, DCI Gene Hunt sports a sky-blue shirt that exactly matches his eyes, carries a stylish man bag and greets the newscaster with a cheery "hi!" as part of his investigation in Metropolitan Police on corruption cases "Yes, police corruption, media corruption, government corruption – and I'm sure hacked phones and computers are probably in there somewhere." implying it would take place in 2010-2011 with the city riots and a breakdown of democracy with a coalition government… "I know exactly how to play this case, how to pitch it." 'It's rock star time for the grown up Gene Genie.

Given his connections to the BBC include family ties, a fully grown Gene says the interviews feel like coming back home as some of his future policing interviews take place at TV Centre. "I love this building. The first time I came here I was about nine in 1972 or 1973. The Blue Peter studio was the first one on the left, then Doctor Who was where Strictly is. Usually it was a birthday treat for me and my best friend. I was fascinated by it all, I knew quite early on it wasn't particularly glamorous; so from then on I wanted to be a policeman."

When the Gene Genie was at primary school implying his first ever school play takes place in 1969 or 1970, he played George in _George and the Dragon_. He had the chainmail – a sack painted silver, head cut out and the cross; it was as straightforward as getting his pick of the girls in his six year old logic. At eight or nine in 1972 Gene took part in an assembly dressed as an Egyptian and very nearly fluffed up his lines.

Gene waved the sword around and all these little girls are going, 'George! Kill the dragon!' and the cute but gorgeously blue eyed, dark haired six year old boy is thinking, 'Yeah!' taking place when he was just six. Gene thinks he was born with a lazy gene. At that age the Gene Genie never really planned anything, which is a far cry from his later days as a Detective Chief Inspector in 21st Century Manchester and London.


End file.
